sort of accident. Usually Sentences Q and P are entirely unlike each
other; but with the right choice for the blank in Sentence P, quining
will do this magic trick for you.
Tortoise: Oh, how clever. I wonder why I never thought of that myself.
Now tell me: is the following sentence self-referential?
"IS COMPOSED OF FIVE WORDS" IS COMPOSED OF FIVE WORDS.
Achilles: Hmm ... I can't quite tell. The sentence which you just gave is
not really about itself, but rather about the phrase "is composed of five
words". Though, of course, that phrase is PART of the sentence ...
Tortoise: So the sentence refers to some part of itself-so what?
Achilles: Well, wouldn't that qualify as self-reference, too?
Tortoise: In my opinion, that is still a far cry from true self-reference. But
don't worry too much about these tricky matters. You'll have ample
time to think about them in the future.
Achilles: I will?
Tortoise: Indeed you will. But for now, why don't you try quining the
phrase "yields falsehood when preceded by its quotation"?
Achilles: I see what you're getting at-that old obscene phone call. Quin-
ing it produces the following:
"YIELDS FALSEHOOD WHEN PRECEDED BY ITS QUOTATION"
YIELDS FALSEHOOD WHEN PRECEDED BY ITS QUOTATION.
SO this is what that caller was saying! Ijust couldn't make out where the
quotation marks were as he spoke. That certainly is an obscene re-
mark! People ought to be jailed for saying things like that!
Tortoise: Why in the world?
Achilles: It just makes me very uneasy. Unlike the earlier examples, I can't
quite make out if it is a truth or a falsehood. And the more I think
about it, the more I can't unravel it. It makes my head spin. I wonder
what kind of a lunatic mind would make something like that up, and
torment innocent people in the night with it?
Tortoise: I wonder ... Well, shall we go downstairs now?
Achilles: We needn't go down-we're at ground level already. Let's go
back inside-you'll see. (They go into the tower, and come to a small wooden
door.) We can just step outside right here. Follow me.
Tortoise: Are you sure? I don't want to fall three floors and break my shell.
Achilles: Would I fool you?
(And he opens the door. In front of them sits, to all appearances, the same
boy, talking to the same young woman. Achilles and Mr. T walk up what
seem to be the same stairs they walked down to enter the tower, and find
themselves in what looks like just the same courtyard they first came into.)
Thank you, Mr. T, for your lucid clarification of that obscene tele-
phone call.
Tortoise: And thank you, Achilles, for the pleasant promenade. I hope we
meet again soon.
Air on G's String 437